England would have started the fourth day with the aim of quickly extending their lead past 300 and having a crack at the Indian batsmen for the best part of the last session. But Anil Kumble was reading from a different script. Bowling round the wicket, pitching in the rough outside leg stump, he was extremely hard to get away from and went at a measly 1.63 runs per over.

Kumble bowled 33 balls to Owais Shah and conceded just 3 runs. Even Andrew Flintoff, whose strike rate of 34.48 during his 50 was his lowest for an innings over 25 runs, could manage just 16 runs off 51 deliveries.

Harbhajan Singh also had a welcome return to form after being woefully out of sorts for most of the series. He pitched 70% of his deliveries just outside off or on off stump and got them to turn and bounce into the right-hander. He kept Flintoff quieter than Kumble - conceding 17 runs off 59 balls and could have had him stumped when on 14.